This isn't to say that the trade for Finley ranks up there with his trade for Schmidt or Rob Nenn. It's not. Finley is 40 years old and had a hooorible year last year (although we noticed that he still did manage to have more RBIs than Edgardo did). At seven mil a year, he's not exactly cheap either. But this trade isn't really about what he got but what he got rid of. It's, as a commenter on McCovey Chronicles puts it, "like going to bed with Jack White and waking up with Meg White," something we're not sure exactly makes a lot of sense but we love the line.

The deal for Alfonso just didn't work out. For the three years he was here, Alfonzo mainly gave us a whole series of "this year, he vows to do better" and "if you take away the first six months of the season, he didn't do so bad" stories. He did come on in late 2003 and provide the only reliable bat in the 2003 playoffs next to Barry, but that was then, this is now, and the less we think about those playoffs the better. We tried to come up with our favorite Edgardo highlight but came up with nothing, nil, bupkus. At least Russ Davis gave us a funny nickname.

Yeah, Finley's stats last year weren't very good and he's old (40 years old), but what works about the deal is that he's not the starter. He's supposed to be the occasional fill-in for an outfield of Old, Older, and Young Only Compared to the Others. He's a gamer, has plenty of experience, and is well known as a clutch hitter, usually against the Giants. And as a fill-in, he's certainly better than your average Michael Tucker.

In other words, thumbs-up.